I think you are referring to Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, two heroic judges who (among other public servants and militaries) were murdered by the mafia in 1992. That year was in fact a turning point in the recent history of Sicily. For the first time huge crowds of people gathered in the streets to demonstrate AGAINST mafia and the mentality (omertà. BTW, if you want to spell it correctly, you must put an emphasis on the A) which supports the mafia system was somehow broken since then. It was a true revolution, something simply unthinkable before. There have been a lot of arrests and many mafia members cooperated with justice. The mafia had to reorganize itself. Currently the mafia seems to keep from murders and rather looks after its businness. It's a long way to defeat the mafia, of course. But if the first step is changing the mentality, the attitude towards mafia and beginning to consider the mafia as an enemy rather than an ally, well I think we are on the right road.

As for customs, especially sexual behaviour, well I must insist there has been a dramatic change in the last, say, 30-35 years and Sicily is not different at all from other Southern European regions. The old mentality can still survive as a background attitude (that's why the one-to-one dates may be still frowned upon) but more formally than substantially. We Italians are Mediterranean, we are Latins, not Swedish, after all! But please, stop thinking Sicily is a land where lupara has the last word (I'm talking to everybody in general, not specifically to you, DT ). I understand the old idea of Sicily being a savage and archaic land is more "romantic" and fits Puzo's books' depictions, so someone could be disappointed in realizing times have changed. But, trust me, nowadays "that" Sicily is more legend than truth.